ABSTRACT
Successful software development projects have something in common. Each of these projects, in some way, shape, or form, followed one or more principles of quality and productivity. Although quality and productivity are foremost on the minds of management, few truly understand how to correlate the tenets of quality to the process of information technology. This chapter considers the very best of techniques and/or ideas that financial services IT managers can use for boosting quality in their development efforts. The Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University is the bulwark of engineering productivity research. In their studies of thousands of firms they have discovered some common characteristics that can be used to pinpoint how progressive a firm is in terms of its maturity in the quest for productivity and quality. The chapter provides a ratings checklist on a 1 to 5 scale that can be used to assess the perceived quality of any delivered system.
